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Last Friday, Gill from work brought about 2 k of rhubarb! I took half not really knowing what to do with them. I’ve never seen them in the Philippines and I’ve only tried them since living in in the UK. Still, I’ve always wanted to try making my own crumble and getting a bunch of rhubarb from Gill is my perfect excuse.

Next step is trawling my cookbooks for the easiest rhubarb recipe. Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess suggests a few things you can do with your rhubarb:

make a brown sauce (!!)

rhubarb cornmeal cake

rhubarb grunt

rhubarb schnapps (!)

rhubarb tart

variation of Victoria sponge

rhubarb-crumble kuchen

She did say you can’t have too many rhubarb recipes in a cookbook.

NL’s rhubarb crumble looks more complicated so I decided to go for the ever reliable Delia. This recipe from her book Delia’s Vegetarian Collection calls for ginger to be mixed with the rhubarb and almonds on your crumble. It’s is gorgeous!

about 900g of rhubarb, wash then trim the ends and cut in 1inch sections

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

110g golden caster sugar (get fairtrade if you can)

110g raw whole almonds (with skin)

1 tsp ground ginger

100g cold butter, cut in small cubes

175 g sifted self-raising flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

110g demerra sugar

something to serve it with: I prefer vanilla ice-cream. I’m not a big fan of custard or cream

Tools

food processor

pre-heated oven at 200˚C

mixing bowl

baking dish about 9in wide, 2in deep

What to do:

Mix the rhubarb with sugar and ginger and put it on the baking dish. Make sure the rhubard is well-covered with sugar. Set it aside and work on the crumble.

Put the butter, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, flour, and sugar in the food processor. Blast it until it looks like a crumble. Add the almonds and do a quick pulse so that the almond is broken down into small chunks. And it’s done!

Before putting the crumble on top of the sugared rhubarb. make sure that there are no big gaps in the baking dish. Just spread the crumble and over the rhubarb. Press it down and then run a fork lightly on the surface.

This weekend, since Tuesy needed cheering up I thought I’d be extra-organised and prepare a couple of seafood dishes. Since she doesn’t eat meat but will happily indulge in piscicide, tuna is an excellent middle ground between veggie and carnivore. I’ll save the other recipe, which I think was even better, for another day. I need to pace myself…

Get yourself some big, thick tuna steaks. As much as you can eat/afford. You’re going to marinade them. To make the marinade, mix the following:

Mix this lot up, and smear it all over your tuna steaks, which you’ve already patted dry with kitchen roll, right? Leave this to marinate for a couple of hours.

(A quick aside. I’m listening to the US Open tennis semi-final. Andy Murray might be about to beat Nadal. Please, please, please…)

OK, here’s the master-stroke. You’re going to make some raita. This is easy, and it’s delicious. You need about 150g greek yoghurt (standard-sized tub), which you mix with some chopped mint and about 50g of chopped cucumber. Chop it fine. Mix this up and it will be a great taste to dollop on your spicy tuna and offset its kick.

Grab your favourite frying pan or griddle. Heat a little oil. Heat it a lot. Cook the tuna steaks for a couple of minutes and then turn and cook for a little more. I like mine scorched on the outside and still pink in the middle. Tuesy likes hers well done. The choice is yours, but the marinade will blacken it a little if you fry it for a long time. That’s still delicious, though.

Serve your tuna with the raita and a green salad. I made it this time with boiled potatoes and broccoli because we were really hungry, but the salad really prioritises the fleshy goodness of your steak. If you cooked it, bask in the appreciation. If it was served to you, feel lucky.

(Murray might be throwing the match away in the time it took me to write this. Dammit. But there’s still a chance…)